China's top economist disappears after criticizing Xi Jinping - WSJ
Photo: Chinese President Xi Jinping (Getty Images)
China's top economist, Zhu Hengpeng, criticized Chinese President Xi Jinping in a private chat. At first, he was detained and removed from office, and then he disappeared, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Sources report that in the spring of 2024, Zhu Hengpeng made several "impolitic remarks" about China's weakening economy and indirectly criticized Xi Jinping in a closed chat on the Chinese messaging app WeChat.
As a result, a case was opened against Hengpeng, leading to his detention and dismissal from the Institute of Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, where he had worked for 20 years, including the last 10 as deputy director.
Additionally, references to him were removed from the online staff list of one of Tsinghua University’s centers.
It is unknown where the economist is now and what happened to him. His name has also disappeared from the CASS staff lists, and he has not responded to emails from the Wall Street Journal and The Guardian. No one answered the door at his apartment in Beijing. The Chinese agency handling media inquiries has not responded to requests for comment.
Zhu was last seen in public at the end of April, where he spoke at a traditional conference on elder care, proposing that young Chinese pay into their parents' pension funds—a suggestion that sparked discontent in the Chinese online space.
He was also scheduled to speak at a scientific conference on May 25, but he was absent, and in the post-conference report, he was neither mentioned as a speaker nor as a participant—another person took his place.
